The present invention relates generally to covering membranes for building structures.
Roofing membranes, are currently applied to roof decks by gluing the membrane to the substrate to be used as an insulation layer or underlayment of a roofing deck using either a water-based adhesive or an solvent-based adhesive that is applied to a roofing membrane at the site of the roofing installation. However, current methods of applying water-based adhesives or solvent-based adhesives “on-site” result in several problems. For example, the application of a roofing membrane with a water-based adhesive is time consuming and may only be applied in limited climatic conditions. A solvent-based adhesive requires care in determining the state of the adhesive to avoid over drying and attempting to adhere the roofing membrane while the adhesive is still wet. Also, solvent-based adhesives have volatile organic component (VOC) problems and may be very flammable, causing safety issues.
In addition, using a thermoplastic material for roofing membranes may require an expensive adhesive.
To join two roofing membranes that have been adhered to a roof substrate, usually hot air is used to weld seams where the two membranes overlap. The seam welds are usually formed using hot air welders that typically cost several thousands of dollars, making the installation of conventional roofing systems quite expensive, even for professional installers.